21. Set up markers,put up signs;think about the road you have traveled,the path you have taken.Return, virgin Israel;return to these towns of yours.
22. How long will you hem and haw,my rebellious daughter?The Lord has created something new on earth:Virgin Israel will once again embrace her God!
23. The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: When I bring my people back from captivity, they will once again utter these words in the land and towns of Judah:The Lord bless you,righteous dwelling place,holy mountain.
24. Those who live in Judah and its towns will dwell together with farmers and shepherds.
25. I will strengthen the weary and renew those who are weak.
26. Then I woke up and looked around. What a pleasant sleep I had!
27. The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will plant seeds in Israel and Judah, and both people and animals will spring up.
28. Just as I watched over them to dig up and pull down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and plant, declares the Lord.
29. In those days, people will no longer say:Sour grapes eaten by parentsleave a bitter taste in the mouths of their children.
30. Because everyone will die for their own sins:whoever eats sour grapeswill have a bitter taste in their own mouths.
31. The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.
32. It won’t be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant with me even though I was their husband, declares the Lord.
33. No, this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my Instructions within them and engrave them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.